The Underground Railroad (Television Tie-in)

A Novel

By: Colson Whitehead

Narrated by: Bahni Turpin

Length: 10 hrs and 43 mins

Publisher's summary

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • PULITZER PRIZE WINNER • NATIONAL BOOK AWARD WINNER • A magnificent tour de force chronicling a young slave's adventures as she makes a desperate bid for freedom in the antebellum South. • Now an original Amazon Prime Video series directed by Barry Jenkins.

Cora is a slave on a cotton plantation in Georgia. Life is hell for all the slaves, but especially bad for Cora; an outcast even among her fellow Africans, she is coming into womanhood—where even greater pain awaits. When Caesar, a recent arrival from Virginia, tells her about the Underground Railroad, they decide to take a terrifying risk and escape. Matters do not go as planned—Cora kills a young white boy who tries to capture her. Though they manage to find a station and head north, they are being hunted.

In Whitehead’s ingenious conception, the Underground Railroad is no mere metaphor—engineers and conductors operate a secret network of tracks and tunnels beneath the Southern soil. Cora and Caesar’s first stop is South Carolina, in a city that initially seems like a haven. But the city’s placid surface masks an insidious scheme designed for its black denizens. And even worse: Ridgeway, the relentless slave catcher, is close on their heels. Forced to flee again, Cora embarks on a harrowing flight, state by state, seeking true freedom.

Like the protagonist of Gulliver’s Travels, Cora encounters different worlds at each stage of her journey—hers is an odyssey through time as well as space. As Whitehead brilliantly re-creates the unique terrors for black people in the pre–Civil War era, his narrative seamlessly weaves the saga of America from the brutal importation of Africans to the unfulfilled promises of the present day. The Underground Railroad is at once a kinetic adventure tale of one woman’s ferocious will to escape the horrors of bondage and a shattering, powerful meditation on the history we all share.

Look for Colson Whitehead’s new novel, Crook Manifesto, coming soon!

Click here to see other past selections from Oprah.

©2016 Colson Whitehead (P)2016 Random House Audio

Critic reviews

WINNER OF THE PULITZER PRIZE, THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD, THE ALA ANDREW CARNEGIE MEDAL AND THE HURSTON/WRIGHT AWARD

NAMED A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR BY NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW, WALL STREET JOURNAL, WASHINGTON POST, TIME, PEOPLE, NPR AND MORE

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

“Get it, then get another copy for someone you know because you are definitely going to want to talk about it once you read that heart-stopping last page.” --Oprah Winfrey (Oprah's Book Club 2016 Selection)

“[A] potent, almost hallucinatory novel... It possesses the chilling matter-of-fact power of the slave narratives collected by the Federal Writers’ Project in the 1930s, with echoes of Toni Morrison’s Beloved, Victor Hugo’s Les Misérables, Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man, and brush strokes borrowed from Jorge Luis Borges, Franz Kafka and Jonathan Swift…He has told a story essential to our understanding of the American past and the American present.” --Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times

Fantastic Novel

I loved this book. The moment I finished it, I wanted to begin it again. When do you let go of the past? What is the "American imperative?" Who defines America? How can we ever move past the slavery as a society, and if possible, should we? The descriptive prose and the employed rhetorical devices in this narrative made for a wonderful listen. I would recommend this to any one. Please be mindful that this novel reveals the horrific cruelty of slavery and some may find it deeply disturbing. I will be thinking about this narrative for many months to come. The novel is powerful and hauntingly beautiful.

WOW!

This is the fastest I’ve ever finished a book on Audible. It was gripping, painful, visceral and so beautifully thought out and put together.
It’s truly masterful to lay down lines between the atrocities of the past and how they inform the deformities of the present.
This land’s glory truly travels through the darkness of others.

Good but

This book actually had me believing that there were sections of the underground railroad that were actually an underground railroad. But this is not true, so I don’t believe we need this type of story when there are so many true stories. I also have a difficult time skipping back-and-forth in different time periods, and different peoples perspectives. I end up spending a certain amount of time either letting my mind wander because I lose interest, or just being confused as to where I am in the story. I enjoyed it, but I think there are so many better books out there that will give wonderful and more truthful perspectives.

Captivating Story

This was a beautiful and tragic story. I was hoping it would have a happy end but instead it just kind of left me hanging which was disappointing. But overall, this story very realistically depicted the life of a slave and what it was like trying to escape her chains. I am so grateful for the miracle of slavery being abolished in this country and that we can coexist much more peacefully in this country now. Very eye opening story.

Wow! Amazing book and preformance.

This book was a great read, I hated putting it down and every time I did all I could think about was picking back up right where I left off. Bahni Turpin does a great job narrating this book, all together outstanding!

Epic and heavy

Such a heavy read at times and such a testament to human resilience. In today's climate this is a must read for anyone who questions the perseverance of racism in America or the anger that remains. Well read and an amazing story.

spectacular and moving

heart-wrenching, elegantly writtern and expertly narrated. An instant classic, a novel for the ages. i was riveted entirely.

just not my cup of tea

The story of Cora starts out alright. But I had a real hard time with this book. Not enough on the underground railroad as about her. I was thinking I would get an in-depth look at the workings , and the people who helped the ones in need of it. You get very little of that and a lot of all over the place information it seemed? Just a very hard book to listen to. I knew the subject matter would be hard but this was just ... probably a lot less of the truth then we want to even think about. A time in history that is so appalling to me. How anyone can fly a confederate flag or claims any part of a history of wanting to degrade and destroy another simply by the color of their skin is frankly even more disturbing now that more light is shone on their inhuman treatment and filthy mindset on our people of color. Just a deeply disturbing look at hate.

Amazing

An amazing emotional experience with truth, wisdom and history. A wonderful presentation by the narrator.

mixed feelings

struggled to finish, hard to follow by audio when story jumped from present to past several times.